Happy Sunday, and I hope you're getting ready for another Lord's Day. And joining us this morning at Compass Bible Church in Prosper. We're really excited to be in our new home and we're thankful for Founder's Classical Academy for hosting us. We'd love to see you there this morning. I know a lot of you guys are out and about vacationing and doing all sorts of fun things, much like Pastor pj who's still in California getting his suntan. But for the rest of us who are holding down the fort, we would love to see you at church. In fact, I have the distinct privilege of preaching this morning, and I would love to have your smiling face there. I always love when there's support. In fact, pastor PG and I were recently talking about the experience of preaching to different audiences, and one of the things that we both agreed is such a helpful person to have in the audience or the congregation is the person who nods. It's funny 'cause we can see you and we know that, that we could see you and it's, that goes without saying, but sometimes it feels like we're not getting anything from you. And so we talked about one of the best noters we know is Mark Kogan. He, in fact, when I was preaching in California, he's the guy that I would always look to say, am I making sense? And if he was nodding, I knew I was on track. If he wasn't nodding, I knew, okay, I need to work on what I'm saying. 'cause clearly it's not coming across So nodding. It's one of those small things that you may or may not do. I don't really know who does it or doesn't do it 'cause I don't preach enough in the main pulpit. It, but it does help. If you're a nodder, I will take it. In fact, if you're a vocal person, if you're an Amen or and a come on preacher kind of person, hey, I'll take that. I love interaction, especially when it's verbal. I know that can get outta hand, and I'm not saying please stand up and start talking or anything, but it would be great to have a little bit of interaction this morning. So if you're planning on coming with us to church, I invite you. Gimme a Kamal and preacher or an amen or a, or gimme a head nod. That would also be helpful. A head nod and a smile, if you don't mind. Alright, a couple of chapters to look at this morning. In fact, we're looking at the final two proverbs in the book of Proverbs. This is God's wisdom on the details of life. And so we're looking at the final two, Proverbs 30 and 31. Both of these have the distinct privilege of being by authors that we don't know. In fact, let's start with chapter 30. These are the words of Agar, the son of Jaka. Who is this? Why are they writing Proverbs? And the short answer is, we don't know, but it's here. So God clearly wanted this. I wonder if Hezeki men added these and these guys were contemporaries. There's questions about that. We don't know who they are, where they come from. But regardless, it's here in our Bible. And clearly this is what God preserved for us. This is what we should enjoy and endure and read. So here we go. We have it. Chapter 30. I love the words of agro though, because I think he's one of those guys. Who I resonate with him, resonate with his sense of wonder, and I think he showcases something that maybe we need more of in our lives. The wisdom of wonder. After his introduction in the first four verses, he's basically saying, then we, I need wisdom. I'm too stupid to have enough wisdom. What I do have I give to you though. And so he starts off in verse five saying, every word of God proves true. He is a shield to those who take refuge in him. It's one thing to know that God's word is true. It's another to put it into practice and to trust that it's gonna be. True and reliable, and that's the difference between the unwise person and the wise person. A wise person and an unwise person may both know the same thing. They both may have a common sense understanding of life, but only the wise person puts it into practice. The wise person knows, for instance, that it's good to save money for a rainy day. The unwise person I bet, would know the same thing, but the wise person takes pains to do it. The wise person will. Act upon the wisdom that God has given them. So in this case, he's saying every word of God proof's true. It's reliable, but the wise person is the one who actually finds themselves shielded by it. They're putting it to work. Verse six, don't add to his words, lest he rebuke you and you be found a liar. Be careful when you elaborate on God's word. And this is something I take especially to heart as a teacher of God's word. I don't want to add to his word or be found supplementing it with things that are untrue. And therefore we gotta be careful when we say, God said or Here's what God wants you to do. That would be wise of us in verses seven through, I don't know, let's see. Verses seven through nine. He says something I think is helpful for us. In fact, verse eight, remove far from me falsehood and lying and give me neither poverty nor riches. Feed me with the food that is needful for me, lest I be full and deny you and say, who is the Lord, or lest I be poor and steal and profane the name of my God. This is such an incredible prayer. Have you ever prayed something like this before? I think a lot of us would be reticent to pray something like this because truth of the matter is that we'd love to have a big bank account. We want the security, and we'd like to be able to hand our kids off of an inheritance. We'd like to be able to set it the next generation of our family to protect them and pro provide for them, and that's not inherently a bad thing. Scripture has things to say about that as well. But Agro knew himself. He knew himself well enough to say, Lord, don't give me too much. You know how much I need, you know how much I can handle. Please don't gimme more than what is necessary for my life to be fruitful because if I have too much, I might be tempted to deny you. And it takes a great deal of self-awareness to know that there is a number that is too much for you. And Jesus says this, whoever is faithful and little is faithful. And much you've heard this one before and that's why it's so important for us to enjoy the little that we do have. And to steward it wisely. If you can't be trusted with a little that is your own, how can you be trusted with eternal things that are far greater and more lasting? So Agar understands something that we probably need to take stock of. He understands himself. He understands his limits. Don't gimme too much. Please don't gimme too little. I need just the right amount. Maybe that's something you should pray today. Lord, don't gimme too much. Don't gimme too little. In fact, what I do want a lot of is truth, which is what he says here in verse eight. Remove far from me falsehood in lying. I want nothing about that. Nothing to do with that. I want to be bankrupt in falsity. I want truth. I want a storehouse of truth. Give me truth. That's what I need. I don't need false. I don't need money. I don't need poverty. I want truth. Gimme all of that and more. That's something that would be wise of us to pray. Several of these proverbs here in the second part of chapter 30 are again, proverbs about the wisdom of wonder and some of these things, I'm not sure I. In fact, people guess what he means by some of these things. I would encourage you to spend time meditating upon them and seeing if you can draw some conclusions, but there's a few takes on some of these things. My best take for you is to let some of these proverbs drive you to wonder. Not wonder as in, I wonder how this works, but wonder as in awe, the sense of recognizing that God does things that are inscrutable. This goes back to our study of Ecclesiastes. In fact, verses 15 and 16 sound a lot like Ecclesiastes. And I wonder if that's his point, that there is a certain level of vanity in the world around us. Certain things that never have enough. And this goes back to what we studied in Ecclesiastes. Remember, vanity in a fallen world life under the sun. It's fleeting, it's futile, and it's full of mystery. So as you read through the rest of chapter 30 try to understand with him the kind of things that he's trying to draw your attention to. Things. For instance, he says in verse 18, three things are too wonderful for me. Four, I do not understand the way of an eagle in the sky, the way of a serpent on a rock, the way of a ship on the high seas and the way of a man with aversion. Notice the commonality between them. He's talking about the way the way in which they do a thing, and there's ideas about what he means by that. And perhaps. Maybe it's just as simple as him saying, look, there are things that are far too wonderful things that cause me to have awe, and these are some of those things. Another commentator noted that verse 20 might give us a clue as to what verses 18 and 19 mean because he says, look, notice in verse 20, this is the way of an adulterous. What the connection is there. It's loose at best in my perspective, chapter 31, these are the words of King Lemuel. This is another challenging one because there's no king Lemuel that we know of in the Old Testament. Some have suggested that maybe King Lemu is a name for Solomon, which is I guess possible, but it doesn't seem likely given the fact that his name is well Lemuel. So whoever this guy is, maybe he's not an Israelites king or a Judean king, whatever it is. We have some of the wisdom that his mom gave him that I think is great wisdom for you to have. It breaks down nicely into two parts. Part one is how to rule justly. She's giving him wisdom about how to lead. Part two is the kind of woman that she wants to marry. The kind of woman who is excellent, the woman that he should pursue. And couple quick thoughts from the first half. Chapter 31 here. How to rule justly. Here's what she says in verse four. It is not for Kings, OMUL. It is not for kings who drink wine or for rulers to take strong drink less. They forget what has been decreed and they pervert the rights of all the afflicted. So there is a prudence and being sober minded. She doesn't want him to be intoxicated because it will dull his senses and he may forget the word of God. He may forget what has been decreed. He may forget what is right and good, and that can never be allowed to take place on his watch. And when is the king on watch? Always. He's responsible for others and therefore, out of responsibility and love for his people. He's wise not to take drink. Now, of course, we've talked about this before. At least in men's ministry, wine is permissive as permittable rather to the Christian. Alcohol is permissible. But drunkenness is not, and some people draw the line of drunkenness at different places, and I think the safest and most wise place to draw the line is when you feel buzzed. I think a Christian can partake insofar as there not their mind is not inebriated or dulled. Scripture goes out of the way so often and give us encouragement and exhortation to be sober minded. That I think even the slight hindrance in this is potentially. Sinful potentially. And I'm gonna say it that way 'cause I can't pound the fist on the table. There's not a scripture verse that says, if you're buzzed, it just says drunkenness. And again, how people define that is variable. But I think it's safer, more conservative to define it at the level of any type of buzzed feeling is not a good feeling for you. It's not appropriate, it's not wise. And King Le Muell, his mother says, this is not for you. And I want you to forget what's been decreed. It's good for you to protect those people. She does say though in verse six, give strong drink to the one who is perishing. And to those who isn't, to those in bitter distress, which shows us that palliative care pain meds for people that are perishing is a good thing. We can endorse that and support that because God is merciful God. He gives us these things to help. And if we can provide help for someone who is perishing, this is a good opportunity for us to utilize those resources. The second half of chapter 31 is a familiar passage, I'm sure it's a familiar section of scripture where the king LE's mom is writing about or encouraging him to look for this kind of woman. This is who he should be looking for. And so she says he says in verse 10, an excellent wife who can find, she's far more precious than Jules. And I know for many of us, we would stop right there and say, I found her. And if you got an excellent wife, oh boy, you better Thank the Lord for her and you ought to say something to her. In fact, let me just quickly say this, everything that you see here if someone, somebody not too long ago I know tried to say, okay, let's just put this woman on paper. And they tried to jot out her schedule for the day, and effectively she was up 24 hours of the day. I think at the end of the day, it was actually 36 hours. She was up 36 hours of every 24 hours day. This person doesn't exist. That was their point. You can't actually do all these things that she does, and I don't think that's the point that. He's trying to make here. I think the point is you find a woman who's industrious, a woman who's at it. She's all about it. She's not just talking about it, she's all about it. She's doing the things and all these things here are descriptors. It's describing in totality what she's like. I. It doesn't mean that she's doing all these things every day and that she doesn't sleep because she's up in the night. She's up in the morning, all these things. It's describing the fact that this woman is a high caliber, quality woman. Her character is what is most beautiful about her, and in fact, that's what is highlighted here at the very end in verse 30. Charm is deceitful. Beauty is vain. That is, you can pretend to be charming for a few minutes. You can even be beautiful for several years of your life. But what will endure? What does have lasting impact is a woman who fears the Lord, that woman is to be praised. Don't get caught up in the trap of just looking at the superficial things. Those are fine. It's insofar as they go. Nothing wrong with being attracted to your wife or your husband for that matter. Nothing wrong with appreciating beauty. Nothing wrong with appreciating charm. Someone that doesn't put their elbows on the table and walks with the right walk, whatever that's supposed to be. But a Gandhi man should look for a woman that fears the Lord. That is qualifier number one. And it's the most important one. There's nothing else that even comes close to the second. So this is the woman that you should praise if you have this woman. Make sure she knows that you think she's the Proverbs 31 woman. Make sure she knows that you think she's a gift of God. Make sure your kids know that. In fact, this is what verse 28 says, her children rise up and call our bless her husband. Also, this is a call for us to verbalize our love and affection for the excellent women in their lives. And so men. Even though it's not Mother's Day, I'd love for you to do, go talk to your wife, tell your kids to talk to your their mother and encourage her and let her know that she's doing a great job. 'cause if she's a woman who fears the Lord, she is to be praised. Give her the fruit of her hands and let her works. Praise her in the gates. Alright, that's the end of the book of Proverbs. I know there's so much more we could talk about here, but I hope you had enough here just to think it through some of the application for your life today. I hope you'll join me at church today. I look forward to seeing you there. I get to preach for the next two weeks in the main pulpit, which is a bit. Nerve wracking. I still get nervous before I preach, even though I've done it several times now. I love doing it, and it's one of my favorite things but boy, because I feel the heaviness of it, the weightiness of it, I have much trepidation before I step into that pulpit. So I, I'd love to see you there. Your smiling face would be a great encouragement to me. Thank you so much for joining me. I am honored that you decided to spend time with me, and I look forward to seeing you at church today and hopefully tomorrow for another edition of the Daily Bible Podcast. Oh. Let me pray for us and then I'll dismiss us. God, thank you for the wisdom of the proverbs. Thank you for your wisdom in our lives that helps us to love and appreciate the things that we should love and appreciate. Help us not to forget to love the people that you put in our lives, especially our excellent wives who are from you. Help us to treasure them and to appreciate them the wives of our families, but also the mothers that are and the grandmothers. That are represented by these verses help us to really appreciate these women who work so hard to love you and serve not only our families, but our communities, and serve our churches. We are tremendously thankful for the women at Compass who fit the bill of Proverbs 31. We ask, Lord that you would help us to be a blessing to them, and that we'd appreciate them with our words and with their actions. We ask. All that's in Jesus name. Amen. Alrighty, goodbye for real. I'll see you tomorrow.

thanks for listening to another edition of the Daily Bible Podcast. This is a ministry of Compass Bible Church in north Texas. You can find out more information about ourChurch@compassntx.org. We would love for you to leave a review to rate to share this podcast on whatever platform you happen to be listening on, and we will catch you against tomorrow for another edition of the Daily Bible Podcast.